


This 'Family' Thing is Hard

by Lady_Phenyx



Series: Whumptober 2019 [18]
Category: Moominvalley (Cartoon 2019), Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Good Parent Joxaren | The Joxter, ask to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 10:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21034844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Phenyx/pseuds/Lady_Phenyx
Summary: After searching for years for the missing Mymblemamma and her brood, Joxter has found his way to Moomin Valley and discovered he has a son he never knew about.Little My...isn't having an easy time dealing with him showing up.Whumptober Day 14: Tear-Stained





	This 'Family' Thing is Hard

Little My stared from the railing of the veranda at Joxter and Snufkin, who lay on the stream bank. Both of them had ended up in the same pose, lying with their hats over their faces, legs crossed and arms behind their heads.

It didn't seem fair, that Joxter could just...come back into their lives like this. Sure, he'd not known about Snufkin for a long time, hadn't been able to find them and been searching for them for longer, but still.

He was a vagabond like Snufkin. How long was he going to stick around? Who did he really come back for? She was pretty sure it wasn't for her. People were happy to see her gone, they didn't come to see her.

...why weren't any of them enough to get him or Snufkin to stay?

Moominmamma came out onto the veranda, wiping her hands on her apron. “Where...oh, there they are. That's nice.”

“Is it?” Little My snapped.

“It's nice to see them bonding.”

“They're just lying there,” Little My said, feeling as if her skin were too small, as if she needed to lash out and not sure why. “That's not bonding.”

“It is for them,” Moominmamma said serenely.

“It doesn't make sense,” Little My said angrily. “Snufkin should be furious with him! Or upset! Or something!”

“What makes you think he's not?”

Little My gestured wordlessly out to the stream bank.

“Well, you know Snufkin, dear. He does play things close,” Moominmamma pointed out gently.

Little My grumbled softly and the veranda went quiet.

\---XXX---

Little My continued to simmer over the next few days, just on this side of boiling over.

She wasn't quite sure what it was that had her so angry.

Joxter...she could see herself getting along with him, really, she could. But for some reason, everything that should have made her like him was making her angrier. Every bit of hesitant affection he showed towards Snufkin, when he talked of visiting her mother, when he looked almost painfully hopeful about meeting her and the other children again...

And he was giving her space. Giving her glances, hopeful, longing glances, but letting her approach.

Never pushing, just waiting, as everyone else just...just accepted him back, as if he might not just get a whim to disappear again for another decade or two!

And it was making her so, so furious!

Before she realized what she was doing, Little My had set her teeth into Joxter's leg and bitten, dashing off into the forest with everyone's cries fading behind her.

\---XXX---

Little My tucked herself into up against the tree, curling up tight.

The tears began, and she didn't know how to make them stop, hot and angry and miserable.

And yet she still wasn't sure how to explain.

And she wasn't ready to apologize.

Well, she was, but she also wasn't. She was upset at herself for biting Joxter, and knew she'd been wrong, so this time she knew she needed to. But she wasn't ready to see him yet, or anyone else.

\---XXX---

Little My was starting to think that she might have to spend the night out in the woods when she heard a soft footstep.

It sounded like Snufkin, the way he moved when he wanted someone to know he was coming.

Little My sniffled.

“Go away,” she said, muffled.

The soft, nearly silent footsteps stopped, and there was the sound of two people approaching, and one of them going to their knees.

There was a soft noise, a rustling, and Little My felt someone crawl up and sit next to her.

She glanced up at Snufkin, and he steadfastly looked away, giving her that much privacy.

There was another step, and she glanced up to see Joxter lowering himself to the ground at the edge of her little clearing, looking away again quickly.

There was silence again in the woods.

Joxter shifted, and Little My froze. Slowly she turned to look at him, inwardly wincing at the way he favored one leg. She may not have had claws, but her teeth were sharp, and she'd gotten him good.

“Nobody stays,” she said when he waited. “They all leave. You will too. I don't get why you're trying so hard. You're a mumrik, you have to leave. Not gonna get attached.”

“I have said I was going to start coming back,” Joxter pointed out.

“For Snufkin,” Little My said, almost too muffled to hear. Not muffled enough for Joxter's ears, but muffled enough they could pretend not to have heard if they wished.

“Little My? Talk to me,” Joxter urged.

“Not my dad,” she grumbled.

“If your mother and I are primaries, I'll be your stepdad,” he said. “And whew, that's...that's a lot for me, too. I mean, you don't have to accept it, I can't make you. I didn't think you'd want me around.”

Little My still wouldn't look at either of them, though having them here, still trying, seemed to make the angry, too small feeling ease. “You came back for Snufkin,” she mumbled. “No one came back for the other kids. Or me. Nobody wants me.”

“It's their loss,” Joxter said firmly. “I was coming back before I knew about Snufkin, Little My.”

“For Mother.”

“She comes with all of you. Your siblings can be...a lot,” Joxter said, and they all winced. “Little My...” Joxter sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. “I don't know how to say this, and anything I say now almost seems like some kind of platitude.”

“I thought you were the one with all the pretty words,” Little My said, a little spitefully.

Joxter snorted. “If you listened to me and your mother, you'd know better,” he said ruefully. “I'm still so dopey around her...”

“More than usual?” Little My quipped, but it lacked the bite of her earlier question.

Joxter snorted again. “Well, at the risk of sounding corny and like I'm just saying it, I do want to know you, too. According to Moominpappa, we're alike enough he's trying to figure out if there's any way I might be your father, too. But I wanted to get to know you anyway.”

“He's already been over to Mymble's,” Snufkin said quietly when Little My didn't reply. “I think he means it.”

“How are you taking all this so calmly?” she asked, upset all over again at the tears that threatened. She was _Little My_, terror of Moomin Valley, she didn't cry! “You should be angry, or upset, or something!”

“I'm not calm,” Snufkin said. “I'm just good at pretending I am. And I was. Sometimes still am. I mean, well. You've pointed out how messed up I am from getting lost and being on my own all this time.” Snufkin curled up next to Little My, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them, mirroring her. “We actually had a...I think the words are 'flaming row' over it.”

Little My glanced up at him curiously, and nudged him with an elbow when it seemed Snufkin was done speaking. He sighed and continued. “I was angry that he disappeared, and didn't find me. And upset that he hadn't been there. And he was upset because he hadn't known about me and wanted to be there. We, ah...sort of ended up crying all over each other,” Snufkin laughed softly, blushing faintly.

“You did _not_.”

“We did. We waited until our smocks dried out before coming back. I didn't want anyone seeing me like that,” Snufkin said frankly. “Little My...just because yours didn't come back doesn't mean we don't love you.”

Little My stiffened. “That's not...”

“No one else's did. Do you think no one loves Mymble 'cuz hers didn't? Or me? You keep trying to convince me people here do.”

“You two are lovable,” Little My grumbled, barely audible. “I'm a terror.”

“I thought you were proud of that?”

“I am! ...usually,” Little My said.

“Moomin loves you. You're his sister as much as mine. And Moominmamma and Moominpappa love you. And Mother does, as much as she does any of us. And I love you. We do want you around, Little My.”

Little My paused, looking up at Snufkin with suddenly wide, almost frightened eyes. “You do?”

Snufkin nodded and was almost toppled a moment later at the lap full of Little My he suddenly had, wrapping his arms around her.

“...love you too,” she said softly.

She looked over at Joxter, tilting her head towards Snufkin. “You really wanna give him a try? He's going to leave.”

“He wants to try my style,” Snufkin said, looking over Joxter as well, who returned the stares. “Sticking around and traveling during Winter. At least Moomin Valley won't go disappearing on him.”

“Unless he gets lost.”

“I want to give him a chance.”

“Hmm.” Little My's eyes narrowed, looking Joxter up and down slowly. “All right then. I think maybe we'll keep him.”

Joxter made a happy noise, blinking at them slowly before coming in for the hug, slow enough they could see it coming.

Maybe this would be okay, Little My thought. Maybe they do mean it.

\---XXX---

It would take two days for Little My to accept Joxter, and three for everyone in Moomin Valley to absolutely, utterly regret that.

If anyone had thought Joxter was going to calm Snufkin and Little My down, maybe soften the whole war against Park Keepers they had going on, they were very, very wrong.

And Little My suddenly was spending much more time with them both, often on them, riding on hats or in Joxter's arms or popping out from under hats.

It was as if they fed off each other, and she could be seen sleeping with them, on them, plotting with them, and there was something about having all three sets of eyes on them that made certain people very, very nervous.

She'd been terrifying enough on her own...how could someone as calm as Snufkin and as lazy as Joxter make everything so much worse?

And both Park Keeper and Police Inspector were quietly terrified, more so than anyone else – the Inspector in a purely personal way, as he was dating Joxter's step (might as well drop the step and just call her his, the way he was acting) daughter.

He'd thought it was bad enough when she found out Snufkin was her brother and he had both Snufkin and Little My judging him, but now the entire Troublesome Trio was watching him.

“Because we love Mymble, and she loves us,” Little My would crow from her perch somewhere on Joxter, be it his hat or his arms. “And we're sick of people breaking her heart.”

If anyone thought Mymblemamma would curb them, well...all she would do was laugh and beam and nuzzle at whichever of them would let her (usually Joxter, who melted whenever she touched him), too pleased to have them all back together to stop them even if she'd been inclined to.

And in the winter, Joxter and Snufkin did leave, as they all had known they would.

But in the spring, two days after Snufkin had returned, no one was more pleased than Little My when Joxter appeared on the veranda, sleeping in front of the door where Moominpappa tripped over him as he went outside to read his newspaper.

Little My leapt onto Joxter as Moominpappa grumbled, hugging him tight.

He squeezed her back, chuckling. “I promised, little terror,” he whispered. “You're not getting rid of me now. Just maybe, don't leave without telling me again?”

Little My just squeezed tighter before scrambling to hide under Joxter's hat while he was wearing it.


End file.
